Traditionally, ice tea is made by extracting soluble tea solids from tea leaves and then adding various flavoring agents such as sugar, lemon, mint, peach and the like. The beverage is then cooled. This method results in a good quality tea product. However, it is time consuming since the consumer must heat water, steep the tea bags, and then cool the hot product.
Instant tea powders are available and may be used to rapidly produce a tea beverage at reduced temperatures. However, instant tea powders usually do not provide an iced tea beverage of quality comparable to that produced by brewing tea leaves.
Further, while it is possible to make an ice tea beverage by steeping tea leaves in water at reduced temperatures, the beverage obtained is poor unless it is steeped for excessively long periods of time. The extraction is too slow and the beverage has a poor color and a flavor which lacks body.
This has lead to a situation where many consumers merely purchase ready-to-drink iced tea beverages.
Therefore there is a need for a tea which may be rapidly extracted at reduced temperatures to provide an acceptable extract for iced tea drinks.